Thank you. Thank you, thank you very much, Prime Minister, dear Evika. It’s a pleasure. I’ll make a couple of quick observations. One, there are many areas where we’re cooperating economically, culturally. We also need to cooperate in hockey as well, because I was at that match in the World Junior tournament when Latvia beat Canada, and beat Canada fairly, I have to say. We could see it coming, beat Canada fairly. So, we have much to learn from each other; we’re stronger together and we do that as well. 

Look, we, as the Prime Minister mentioned, we first met, actually, in April at the Vatican. We’ve had regular discussions through the Coalition of the Willing and other formats since then. But when we first met, the Prime Minister kindly invited me here and I made a point to ensure that I came. We picked a date to come here, which actually is the 34^th anniversary of when Canada recognized Latvia’s independence, becoming the first G7 country to do so. 

But I also mentioned to the Prime Minister at the time, I recall, because I knew this by reputation, Latvia, by reputation of your contribution to the international community, contribution, obviously through NATO – and I’m going to say a few more words about that in a moment, our cooperation in NATO – but your leadership, as I’ve seen in the Coalition of the Willing, very importantly, and also represented, and we look forward to this, we’re a strong supporter of Latvia’s membership of the UN Security Council, which will come in a few years. 

And I think, if I may suggest, that one of the reasons for this strong, these strong contributions, is that this nation understands how precious freedom is and how precarious freedom can be. That recognition by Canada, coming 34 years ago, of course, was after Latvians courageously reclaimed your independence, in this case from the Soviet Union, going to the barricades at the major buildings, including the Parliament. Subsequent to that, a little over 10 years ago, as we know, the menace begins to return to the region, 2014 and Russia’s illegal seizure of… invasion, seizure of Crimea. 

Recognizing that this is not… some have described Russia as a far-off foreign threat. It’s not a far-off foreign threat; in Latvia, it’s an immediate threat. Here, one that we recognized and my predecessor, Stephen Harper, and the Canadian government recognized. So, not only taking action in Ukraine to begin Operation UNIFIER to train Ukrainian troops, an operation that’s led to over 45,000 Ukrainian troops being trained, but also contributing troops here from 2014 onwards.

As in 1991, Canada is under no illusions about the importance of your fight, and you should not ever, you should never doubt Canadians’ commitment to your cause; it is like our own. 

From that initial 100 troops that were contributed as part of what we call Operation REASSURANCE, a little over a decade ago, it grew then to over 450 troops three years ago, as the menace increased with the start of this horrific illegal war of Russia against Ukraine. And our message is absolutely clear; it was clear from the day that Latvia joined, it’s clear now, that an attack of any sort on this country is an attack on Canada as a member of the NATO alliance.

An attack against the Baltic States is an attack against NATO and against Canada.

Today, that force, that multinational battle group – and the Prime Minister and I discussed the modalities of this earlier – that group has grown to over 3,500 soldiers from 14 different nations under Canadian leadership. Over 2,000 of those brave women and men are Canadians. It’s Canada’s largest current contribution to the NATO alliance. 

And, when we look at the current situation, and we discussed this, and I mentioned this when I was in Kyiv a few days ago, we look back at the differences from the years leading up to Latvia’s reclaiming of independence. If you recall, the peace efforts of… disarmament efforts, I guess I should say, of President Reagan. His slogan at the time was “Trust, but Verify,” trust, but verify the actions of Gorbachev. Well, Vladimir Putin is not Mikhail Gorbachev; he seeks darkness, not glasnost; he seeks empire, not perestroika. We can’t trust, but verify with Putin. As we think about the process through the Coalition of the Willing, we must deter and fortify, and that is the way that we can provide true reassurance. 

So, to that end, it’s my honour, I’m very proud, along with David McGuinty, Canada’s Minister of National Defence, to announce that Canada will extend Operation REASSURANCE. Our leadership of that, our commitment here on the ground, will extend for three more years. The three more years is just how we do these things; we extend over three years. And we will, in the process, increase the brigade’s capabilities here in Latvia, reinforce our collective defence, strengthen our cooperative security, and keep the NATO presence strong.

I do want to take this opportunity, Prime Minister, to thank you on behalf of the women and men of the Canadian Armed Forces who are currently serving, but who have served in the past, and will serve in the future. You referenced this with some humility, but the hospitality and the experience that they have had means that they do want to stay, they do return, and they are proud to have provided this support.

Together, we have important work ahead, more broadly. As members of the Coalition of the Willing, we are working to secure peace and security in Ukraine. We know that that security can only come through strength, and that means tough sanctions on Russia; it means reinforcing the capabilities of the Ukrainian armed forces, and it means… it will mean developing robust and credible security guarantees for tomorrow. In June, both of our nations have pledged, as the Prime Minister mentioned, to increase our defence spending to 5% of GDP. For Canada, that will represent, in cash terms, a quadrupling of defence expenditure from 2024 levels to the end of this decade.

We had this conversation, we’ve had a running conversation on this; it will continue. And we have, as I said earlier, a lot to learn from Latvia; we have a lot to learn from the experience in Ukraine. Because what matters is not what we spend, but how we spend, how we spend in cooperation, how we learn the lessons of the changing nature of the battlefield, the changing nature of defence. And so, it is very important, direct bilateral cooperation with Latvia, also with Ukraine, but our broader cooperation as Canada with the European Union as part of our participation in safe security action for Europe as the instrument of the ReArm plan.

So we, three decades on… or to be more precise, 34 years on to the day from when we recognized your independence, we stand alongside you. We’re honoured to be by your side to deter aggression. And if I just finish by going back to when we first met in Rome in April – it feels like a few years ago, given all that’s happened, but it was a few months ago – and in his remarks, the Pope – this was at the papal inauguration, as you said – he reminded that peace is more than the absence of war. True peace is more than the absence of war. Madame Prime Minister, you rightly referenced values, so values of tolerance, of solidarity, compassion; values that Latvia and Canada share.

We also know, though, as NATO partners, as friends, that at this point, at this point of actual war in Europe and threat… an actual hybrid war that affects Latvia and others, security, distinct from peace, security can only come from strength. So, today’s commitment to Operation REASSURANCE contributes to the peace, to the security through strength, and of course, our values contribute to the strength of our values.

So with that, I’ll hand to you and we look forward to your questions. Thank you.